39. Hiding Things From The World
HIDING THINGS FROM THE WORLD
“ O nly a month until your wedding,” Daphne said to Aster two weeks later.
He came over to visit her while Raine was putting shower gifts away from the party yesterday.
More like finding a place to store them since her brother was waiting to see if the bid he put in on a house Friday was accepted.
He didn’t have the patience to go back and forth and negotiate, but the sellers were dragging their feet to negotiate until the last minute each time.
“Not much longer,” Aster said. “How is the arm doing?”
“It’s great,” she said, lifting it up and over her shoulder and rotating it around. “I bet I healed quicker than you.”
“You probably did,” Aster said. “But not like I’d tell anyone else that. Raine was driving me nuts for a week.”
“She loves you,” she said.
“Yep. I know. I get it. I’m not used to anyone taking care of me like that other than you.”
“I know you well enough to not be in your space the whole time. She’s still learning, but it’s a different kind of love.”
“I know,” Aster said. “I’m glad I found it. Glad you have too.”
“Yeah,” she said.
“What’s going on?” Aster asked. “Is there a problem? Do I have to have a talk with Abe about something?”
“Don’t even think about it,” she said firmly. “I’m over men thinking they have to take care of my problems. That includes you.”
Aster took a step back and put his hands up. “What’s going on? I promise not to get involved if I don’t have to, but I’d like to know. Maybe I can help or be a shoulder for you to lean on. You know, like all those years in the service you just talked to me.”
“Which I shouldn’t have done as you had more important things going on in your life,” she said.
She always regretted saying things to Aster when she knew there wasn’t anything he could do about it.
She didn’t want him to do anything about it though.
Then she wondered how fair it was for her to use him to unload when he had more important things on his mind.
“Don’t ever think that,” Aster said. “When you do, it diminishes your self-worth and you’ve always struggled there.”
She didn’t need her brother to point that out to her. “I don’t think I do anymore.”
“I haven’t seen it lately,” Aster said. “Not since you’ve lived here, but that doesn’t mean you don’t feel it. You’re good at hiding things from the world.”
“I get that from my big brother.”
Aster snorted. “Don’t remind me. But I don’t do it much anymore either. You’re evading. What is going on with Abe?”
“Nothing much, I guess. I mean it’s old news, but it still kind of bothers me.”
“Are you going to tell me?” Aster asked.
There was no reason not to. “I found out that he told Reese that I was worried I was going to get fired after I got hurt. That they’d be upset because I wasn’t watching Holly carefully.”
Aster put his hand up. “Stop right there. I know you. I know how your mind works and the guilt you put there. I’m not faulting him for saying that. I would have done the same thing if you told me you were fearful of it.”
“I really can’t win with the men in my life, can I?” she asked. She didn’t expect Aster to say that.
“There is no winning or losing here. He’s protecting you the same as I would. I’d want that in any man that ended up with you. I don’t see him saying that being a big deal. When did he say it?”
“The day it happened. I was emotional and in pain. Reese called him when I was having my MRI and it came out. Abe tends to say more than he should at times and he said he didn’t even think much of it.”
“He shouldn’t have had to worry about saying that,” Aster argued. “He was putting it out there in case they didn’t know, but I’m positive he felt the same way I did, that it never crossed their minds to terminate you.”
“He said that,” she said.
“So you did talk to him about it?” Aster asked.
“I did,” she said. “The day I found out which was about two weeks ago. Julie mentioned it.”
“Julie is the one that likes to run her mouth,” Aster said.
“And trust me when I say I don’t get in the middle of the girl drama, least of all with nannies, but I’ve heard it said a few times that Julie is full of gossip and always wants to know what is going on.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Poppy purposely didn’t want her in the house anymore.
Rose and Thomas are calmer and probably don’t talk as much to worry about things. ”
She laughed. “I thought of that too. Poppy and Reese aren’t as reserved as Rose and Thomas. At least in front of people. You could be right.”
“Did you and Abe fight about it?” Aster asked.
“I don’t fight about much,” she said. “You know that. I had calmed down some by the time I saw him and we talked. He even joked about wondering if I ever got mad.”
“I’ve seen you get mad before,” Aster said. “Normally it was with Mom or Dad but not really to their faces.”
“It’s not worth it anymore,” she said. “It only works me up and Mom could care less. It solves nothing.”
She knew her mother wasn’t going to fly here for the bridal shower yesterday even though Aster had said he’d pay for the ticket. It was a long flight for just a few days and her mother said they’d be here for the wedding.
But the least her mother could have done was send a damn gift.
When her mother said that she wasn’t coming and didn’t need to, Daphne was mortified.
She didn’t want her brother or future sister-in-law upset over that, so she went out and bought something else and put both her mother’s and her name on it.
Her mother thanked her, but never offered to give her the money. Not that she expected it.
She supposed she should consider herself lucky her mother even thanked her.
But she knew that Raine would send out thank you cards and didn’t want her mother to wonder why she got one or think it was a joke.
“No,” Aster said. “It’s not. Nothing is with them anymore.
I’m positive if I didn’t pay for them to come to the wedding, they wouldn’t.
I wouldn’t have cared either way, but I don’t want Raine worried or upset that it had to do with her.
And you do those things for people you love. Just like the shower gift yesterday.”
She sighed. There was no reason to say anything else.
Aster must have seen through the whole thing.
He would have played it up with Raine though.
“I’m sure they wouldn’t have come. Or they would have held out waiting for you to pay.”
“I didn’t give them the chance to do that,” Aster said. “I just told them I had the hotel booked and for them to send me their information and I’d take care of their flights. Throwing a few extra days in there for them to enjoy a vacation helped.”
She snorted. “They’ve been waiting for you to give them something like that. Mom can’t help how they are.”
“Don’t make excuses for them,” Aster said. “I know they are our parents for good or bad.”
“More bad than good,” she said, laughing.
Though it’s not like her parents didn’t send them gifts for holidays and try to do things at times when she lived there.
They didn’t do much, but they weren’t nonexistent in her life.
“True,” Aster said. “But we recognize them for who they are. They expect us to step in and make up for their shortcomings.”
“And we both do and did,” she said.
“Which is stopping now,” Aster said, giving her a hard stare. “After the wedding.”
“Good thing you amended that,” she said
“They know this is a one-shot thing with me. They should be here for a number of reasons. I believe they would have come anyway after they put the guilt on my shoulders. Don’t you think?”
She wanted to believe what Aster said was true.
Even if their motivation was to use that for something more in the future.
“I think so,” she said.
“I saved us all months of a headache and calls and whining about it,” Aster said.
“That’s a good point.”
“They haven’t said anything to you about money in months, have they?” Aster asked.
“No,” she said. “I’m sure you told them not to.”
“I did,” Aster said. “I’m not afraid to admit it either. They have no right to ask you for anything when you have been giving them money for years. They used it as an excuse to call it rent.”
“Lots of parents charge rent to their grown adults still living in the house.”
“Don’t even think of making excuses for them,” Aster said.
“I’m not,” she said. “I would have paid them something anyway, though it shouldn’t have been as much. But it made me appreciate the value of hard work and money.”
“And had us both growing up faster than we should have.”
She laughed. “I don’t think that way,” she said.
“I don’t think I do either other than you didn’t get to enjoy your life much. You were always working.”
“I’m making up for it now. Don’t worry about that in the least,” she said, smirking.